The Future Is Green: Alex Tyink Of Fork Farms On Their Top Strategies for a Cleaner Planet
An Interview With Wanda Malhotra
Localize systems — Whether it is energy production, water filtration, food production, healthcare, public safety, etc., localize these services and put them in the hands of the people who are directly impacted. This will result in higher efficiency, and an efficient business is clean business.
As we face an unprecedented environmental crisis, the need for sustainable solutions has never been more urgent. This series seeks to spotlight the innovative minds and passionate advocates who are leading the charge in environmental conservation and sustainable practices. We aim to explore the most effective strategies, breakthrough technologies, and transformative policies that are shaping a more sustainable future for our planet. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alex Tyink.
Alex Tyink is the co-founder of Fork Farms and the inventor of its ground-breaking farming technology and methods. He is a former opera singer with 10 years of leadership experience in the social service sector, who works to inspire vast food system change across communities.
He began his urban agriculture career in Brooklyn, New York where he first worked on rooftop gardens and then started building indoor growing systems of his own for educational and food security purposes. This eventually led to the development of Fork Farms intellectual property, the Flex Farm, the most efficient indoor, mobile hydroponic farm on the planet that can grow 25 pounds of leafy greens in less than a month and in just nine square feet of space.
After relocating back to Wisconsin, Alex continued his work as program director at Goodwill Industries of North Central Wisconsin and as director of innovation and programs for Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. In 2023, Fork Farms was included on the Inc. 5000 list, and the FoodTech 500 list. The company currently has three patents with a series of others pending. Alex currently lives in Appleton, Wisconsin with his wife, two sons, and their dog Maya and is passionate about empowering communities through accessible food production.
Fork Farms is creating a better, cleaner, more efficient and sustainable food system for our communities, one farmer at a time. We are a mission-first agriculture technology company based in Green Bay, Wisconsin that develops innovative indoor hydroponic vertical farming technology and digital tools to empower all people to grow fresh food in any setting. Fork Farms is one of the 2023 Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America, the #1 Inc. 5000
Fastest Growing Agriculture and Natural Resources company and recognized on the Financial Times Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies 2024 List. To learn more, visit www.forkfarms.com.
Hear the Fork Farms story from Alex Tyink via video.
Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
I’m a native of Appleton, Wis. and grew up in a family that encouraged creativity and exploration in nature. After studying voice and opera, and earning my degree at Northwestern in Chicago, I was living in New York City to pursue a career in vocal performance. During that time, I volunteered to help tend a rooftop garden in Brooklyn and quickly discovered both the physical, and mental health benefits of eating and growing fresh food. At the end of the day, I was sent home with a bag of fresh lettuce and my life was forever-changed. This rooftop experience encouraged me to figure out how to help feed the world and change the way people think about and grow food. After much experimentation, engineering and design, I built my first hydroponic farm in my New York apartment, grew fresh greens and sold them to an upscale restaurant in my neighborhood.
Endless hours of trial and error on the farm system, daily consumption of fresh greens, a move back to my hometown in Wisconsin, and the building of a mission-driven company named Fork Farms ensued. Years of tweaking and perfecting the hydroponic farm led to the creation of the Flex Farm, the most efficient indoor, mobile hydroponic farm on the planet that can grow 20 pounds of leafy greens in less than a month and in just nine square feet of space.
Today, Fork Farms has installed more than 2,750 Flex Farms in 42 states and nine countries in health care, school, food service, community service, hospitality and home settings to name a few. More than 1,000 Flex Farms are growing in K-12 schools and Fork Farms was recently named to Inc. Magazine’s 5,000 Fastest growing companies.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
I had quite the “pivot point” in my business while I was in the early stages of growing the business. While back in my hometown, I was introduced to a local warehouse owner who offered me space to build my hydroponic farms in exchange for equity in the company and a board seat. As a new, and extremely busy first-time business owner, I accepted this offer assuming the bargain warehouse space would save on expenses and help launch the business to the next level. At this time, the business was running on credit, and via friends and family investments, so a deal on space was welcome.
I quickly ordered inventory and tools for my farms, and began planning for expanded manufacturing and distribution of the product. I put my head down and was grinding. What I was not aware of was the fact that the warehouse owner wanted to be involved in the day-to-day of the business and was put off that I was plugging away independently.
Disgruntled, the warehouse space owner sent defaming messages about me to other partners in the business with the attempted goal of taking the business away from me. I immediately got my legal ducks in a row to protect my new business and rented new space to house the farms. Then came the next bump in the road. As I was assembling farms in the new warehouse space, I realized that I had underpriced the units and current prices would not support the cost of running the business. To generate cash and pay off investments, I started growing fresh greens in the farms and selling the crops for cash to local restaurants, businesses, and anyone else who was interested.
Working with the farms this closely enabled me to completely understand all of the intricacies of the system and fine tune the units. My need to grow greens to keep the business afloat forced me to get to know the product more quickly and intimately than I likely would have in the first warehouse space where the focus would have been solely on manufacturing. Because I was growing and inventing while using the product, this ultimately accelerated innovation and led to the next, more advanced and superior generation of the Flex Farm.
Takeaways — make it a priority to understand customer needs, stay close to the product and advance products accordingly. Evolve alongside the customer allowing for ongoing innovation, improvement and a product that is best in class.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
As an impact-driven business, I think it’s very important to stay pure to your intent and continually reconnect with your company’s mission. I talk with my team on a regular basis about how the things we work on every day are leading to positive impact and moving the needle in the right direction. For me, the more I focus on feeding people, the more people we feed. This fuels me and ultimately grows the business, so it’s a win win to keep the mission top of mind.
I have always felt that it’s important to be open to feedback — both positive and negative. I work to accept constructive criticism, listen and then make improvements. This allows me to be nimble, explore new avenues and make regular improvements. Therefore, I always welcome feedback and keep an open mind.
I am also interested in learning something new each day, and I don’t take myself too seriously. I like the work hard, play hard motto.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?
At Fork Farms, we are working on many exciting projects and we are thrilled to ensure that more people across the globe have access to fresh foods.
This past Fall, via funding from the Sony Global Justice Fund, we launched a climate-smart agriculture project aimed at tackling persistent climate issues, high food prices and food insecurity in the Caribbean. We installed 12 Flex Farms in Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, and Barbados to empower these vulnerable communities in the Caribbean to produce fresh, nutritious food all year long. This program has already had such great success that 20 more Flex Farms are on order for the Cayman Islands, providing more fresh food and learning opportunities year-round.
The Flex Farms in the islands are used in schools for consumption and to enhance learning opportunities in the areas of: STEM, nutrition, agriculture, sustainability and health; in addiction recovery centers for skill building; and in a large regeneration project modeled for climate adaptation and resilience. The objectives of this program are two-fold — to mitigate food insecurity through community-driven Climate-Smart technology and innovation, and to create livelihood opportunities, with a special focus on vulnerable local communities, including women and youth. By integrating innovative technologies, such as the Flex Farm units, Caribbean countries can enhance agricultural yields, effectively adapt to climate change impacts, and achieve long-term and sustainable food security for the community. We are thrilled to be part of this impactful project in a place that significantly suffers from climate issues and instabilities.
What pivotal moment led you to dedicate your career to sustainability, and how has that shaped your approach to environmental challenges?
My afternoon tending to the rooftop garden in Brooklyn sparked my passion to find ways for people to grow their own food and have access to fresh food year-round. I started tinkering with an outdoor garden, then indoor gardening and then hydroponic growing — figuring out how to grow more food in less space, efficiently and sustainably.
Two billion people worldwide face food insecurity, and agricultural demand is on the rise. Climate change is causing an average 20 percent decrease in crop yield, and supply chain issues are causing food and resource waste and an overall reduction in nutritional quality. In 2023, our Flex Farms had the capacity to save 4.6 million food miles, 567 thousand pounds of food waste, 12 million kWh of CO2, and 32 million gallons of water in communities across the globe.
Our mission is to lead a Fresh Food for All revolution by creating a better, cleaner, more efficient, and sustainable food system for our communities, one farmer at a time. The power is ours to upend the food system for good and make fresh food more accessible to all people in all places.
Could you describe a groundbreaking project or initiative you’ve been involved in that significantly contributed to sustainability?
We have recently introduced our brand new product called the Flex Acre that leverages ground-breaking controlled agriculture technology to enable communities to grow fresh produce at scale. The Flex Acre is the most efficient and transformative hydroponic solution available, and is capable of producing more than 100 pounds of leafy greens and other vegetables every month.
The largest installation of the Flex Acre will be completed in the coming years in Rockwell Automation’s headquarters in downtown Milwaukee as a way to give back to the local community. This vast indoor vertical farm, named Clock Tower Farms, will occupy 7,300-square-feet of space and through 72 Flex Acres will be capable of producing 540,000 plants and almost 150,000 pounds of food annually, or 1,200,000 servings — enough to feed roughly 5,000 Milwaukee households annually.
How do you navigate the balance between economic growth and environmental preservation in your sustainability strategies?
Luckily, sustainability is built into what we do and a pillar of our success. By growing the business, we are positively impacting the environment by offsetting traditional agriculture and the impact it has on the climate. We also evaluate business decisions with both lenses. For example: we work to reduce packaging and shipping materials, deliver more resources online via our Farmative app versus printed materials, operate as a remote team when possible instead of traveling unnecessarily. We prioritize the best experience for our partners by addressing their needs first while also keeping to our mission of sustainability and efficiency. We never sacrifice the needs of our partners to gain success.
What emerging technologies or innovations do you believe hold the most promise for advancing sustainability and why?
First and foremost, we all need to think about what we are doing to spur innovation. I often think about what the world would be like if we embraced a more holistic approach to advancing sustainability. If businesses had a common goal and put more emphasis on collaboration instead of competition, I’m confident that we could advance sustainable efforts more efficiently. One common goal across all industries is necessary to create positive change.
In the food space, the world is going to need to feed more people, so we need to proactively figure out how to grow food in new and innovative ways. Food needs to be fresher, grown closer to home and more affordable. Enter our Flex Farms that can grow fresh food efficiently, reliably, affordably and locally all year long.
I think that advancing sustainability also stems from focusing on the well-being of the community, instead of maximizing profits. At Fork Farms, we use the health and wellness of the community as a leading indicator of success.
Also, more businesses need to be willing to take a stand, take risks and be part of the solution. Sustainability efforts should be at the core of a business and go hand in hand with business creativity. The world is going to continue to advance technologically; it’s therefore important to power these solutions in a sustainable way.
Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Top Strategies for a Cleaner Planet”?
Localize systems — Whether it is energy production, water filtration, food production, healthcare, public safety, etc., localize these services and put them in the hands of the people who are directly impacted. This will result in higher efficiency, and an efficient business is clean business.
Create more opportunities for public and private partnerships. By leveraging innovation in the private sector to focus on public benefit, more people will be happier and healthier, and will therefore prioritize efforts related to sustainability.
I think we need to have clear roadmaps and accountability systems at every level, whether it is as simple as individual purchase choices to business supply chain processes and public education, people need to be more aware of how their choices in society impact sustainability.
I’d challenge everyone to take time each week to think about how they can contribute to ongoing sustainability and be the cleanest version of themselves. Think about what is happening locally and how you can contribute.
If everyone had the attitude of “every person, every day can make positive change”, we would undoubtedly have a cleaner planet. Little things can add up to big changes that create progressive impact.
In your view, what are the key steps individuals, communities, and governments need to take to achieve a more sustainable future?
I think we need to put more emphasis and belief in the power of hyperlocal solutions that can disrupt our current supply chain, such as our food supply chain. If we continue to create tools and funding mechanisms to influence these types of solutions, we can progress towards a more sustainable future.
You are a person of influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
We know that the food we are eating is tied to our health, and I believe that great health is at the foundation of a great life. To have exceptional health, you need to put good food into your body. At Fork Farms, we view ourselves as an upstream healthcare organization, and we would like more people to join the upstream healthcare revolution via fresh, good, healthful food.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com .
